An artificial intelligence healthcare company claims that its software can more accurately assess the extent of prostate cancer than medical professionals.
Avenda Health conducted a study last month, involving ten doctors who evaluated 50 distinct prostate cancer cases. According to the study, Avenda’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7%, while the doctors’ manual assessments ranged between 67.2% and 75.9%.
This research, which was carried out in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, also highlighted that AI-assisted cancer contouring led to predictions of tumor size that were 45 times more accurate and consistent compared to assessments without AI.
“We observed that the use of AI assistance improved both the accuracy and consistency of doctors’ assessments, resulting in greater agreement among them when utilizing AI tools,” stated Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and the study’s senior author.
Typically, doctors rely on MRIs to determine tumor sizes; however, some tumors are not visible on MRI scans. Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, noted that AI can address limitations where MRIs cannot detect certain tumors.
“Overall, the integration of AI into cancer treatment has the potential to enhance personalized care for patients, offering treatments better suited to their unique circumstances and increasing the effectiveness in combating the disease,” Brisbane remarked. He added that AI has the capacity to surpass human capabilities.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, expressed that it is “empowering for physicians to witness such innovations validated through studies and acknowledged by the AMA.”
In the United States, approximately 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lives, and 1 in 44 men will succumb to the illness, according to the American Cancer Society. It is projected that there will be 299,010 new cases of prostate cancer in the US this year, with an estimated 35,250 fatalities resulting from the disease.